I sort of started doing a diary, but got jumbled up with pictures and files on my phone and pc.
So a few pictures with brief explanations. Shots of Wheelnuts truck and tank in various compromising positions.
The Cleaning station in our main depot.
Cleaning in Switzerland, demonstrating the hygienic sterile cleaning. More than could be said of the sweaty oik who was doing the cleaning though. I got rejected for loading after this one, and had to do a self clean with a steam hose & cold hosepipe in the loading factory.
The view of a Swiss cleaning bay.
And the view beh
An easy life or a period of availability. 5 hours pumping a load of malt extract for your ovaltine.
Parked in France for the weekend with 4 other Van den Bosch trucks all tipping at the same place on Monday Morning. There was some kilometres done in that lorry park!
Shunter of the last decade. Saurer
Good cheese Grommet, loading whey in Bismark East Germany.
It’s closed now but Marienborn still looks an intimidating place, especially at night. This is the old East German border crossing from Helmstadt. Marienborn was also a concentration camp in WW2 and is now a museum.
Parked again in France with a German colleague and bought some cigs from this Romanian for 1 Euro more than he paid, they are not going to get rich like that. I remember when he would have been happy to have ROMAN Diesel on his truck but this one has a Bussing badge. This guys English was absolutely word perfect and we were talking about the border crossings when everyone worked for F Troop (Romtrans)
The Onboard Computer, electronic timesheet and satellite tracking.
Van den Bosch container park from a distance, I was in the workshop at the other side of our huge yard. on the day I visited I was waiting to wash my truck but could not get in the wash because the forklift driver was washing his Kalmar 40 tonne toplifter.
Inside the cleaning bays, there are 6 lanes for food products, 1 for milk (CIP) and 2 chemical lanes. at the other side is 2 lanes for exterior cleaning. There is also a sterile bay where they purge clean tanks with nitrogen before loading sensitive products like beer and wine.
Hygiene is a must with our products. Tanks are sealed after cleaning with a certificate of hygiene and water samples.
These pictures were taken in Magdeburg Rothensee, there are at least 85 brand new FM380 ROLFO car transporters going to Russia. The phone number is here if you fancy a change of career.
My jigsaw puzzle and parts of the cargo pump.
Some of the pictures are a little distant as I took them with my phone,
The diary is a snapshot of a couple of weeks work when I travelled from the UK to Swiss, back to France, loading forward from France to Belgium, then from Holland to Hamburg and Magdeburg back to one of our customers in Holland.
One thing I did notice on a recent Swiss trip, is that customs officers must be trained by one nasty person, they have all got this arrogance and tactics that the Gestapo would still be proud of.
I was in a queue of 2 with only one window out of 6 working, My papers had gone in to be checked and the other guy was waiting, although his papers were already finished and on the desk just out of his reach. As my papers came back to the first customs man he placed them on top of the others, just out of reach.
At this a Turkish driver came and tried to hand his papers in to the Swiss Customs. the customs then closed his window so the Turk put his papers on the counter waiting for the next turn. As he did this, the customs officer opened the window and pushed his Carnet on to the floor, scattering invoices, CMR’s and shipping notes everywhere. He then walked around the counter and walked over them and went to another office. These power struck kids are in every border post and it is unwise to make a complaint otherwise you will forever have problems.
Shortly after this, another window opened and as the Turk was still putting his paperwork in order, there had grown a small queue at that window, The guy who was originally in front of me went to the new window and explained what had happened and the girl then passed us both our finished papers while the Turk was trying to regain his rightful place in the queue.
I have used both St Louis(F) and Weil am Rhein(D) over the last few weeks after a break of more than 6 years, The Guys in St Louis could not have been more helpful, walking across the road with me to show me each window in turn and what each officer required. Although the system is very similar, the ways of collecting road tax and registering trucks has changed.
Austrian customs were known as Alpine Turks, the Swiss seem to have taken on that roll very well. Swiss Roll. (No pun intended)
One thing I did the other day was count English Trucks on a daytrip through France, I met 30 UK registered trucks between Lille and St Louis, probably would have seen many more if I had gone through Lux. I didn’t think that was a bad sample and made the doom and gloom of TN seem better. This weekend I was parked near Orleans and the lorry park was full, 1 Romanian 2 Brits, 3 Dutchmen, 2 Spaniards 1 Belgian, 2 Luxembourgers and 4 Frenchmen and a Lay Dee. 7 or 8 Germans and 3 Czechs and a lone Portuguese and Hungarian. I don’t think the Eastern Bloc have quite taken over yet.
One other thing happened on the last trip. I was in Germany for the last bank holiday and had to load Sunday for delivery to Holland on Monday, it’s not a holiday in Holland although everywhere else in Europe including the UK have that day off. Normally you cannot run on a Sunday unless you are carrying fuel, frozen food products in a fridge or going for a train. I loaded with fresh milk so I received a permit from the factory and was in Holland on Sunday evening. I tipped at 7.30 and went back to the main depot to wash my truck and trailer. I then sent a message to my planners in the UK and after about an hour realised they were on holiday too, so I called the emergency UK number. I got my regular planner who was most upset that I had disturbed him on bank holiday Monday. He said I have sent your instructions by email on Friday, I am shopping with my wife and don’t need drivers ringing me.
I kept my calm and asked how I was supposed to read my email in Derby when I was week ended in Germany and loaded and ran Sunday. Why didn’t you put the instructions on the onboard computer? I asked him reasonably. “well, I expected you would have gone home for the weekend”!!!
Next time I tip in Hamburg on a Friday, that is what I should do, run empty to the UK to check my email.
Please note that this is a UK planner & treats us as if we come from Mars. (The planet and not the chocolate factory)
Another milk round, loading from Lille to Terneuzen, Antwerp Kallo to Monchengladbach with frozen orange juice and then back to the UK with a tank of Glucose for Mars, (the chocolate factory, not the planet)
I had issues with the security guard in Dow Chemicals, I parked the truck on the lorry park and walked across the road to book in. I made out my booking form and passed it to him to stamp, “Have you got a hard hat and glasses?”
Yes, in my toolbox. You must wear them when you come here he said putting my visitor pass under the counter while I went back to the truck to demonstrate I had a hat and safety glasses. In this same office were 3 or 4 reps or visitors who didn’t even have safety shoes or even covered arms. Bear in mind, this is not inside a factory but on the public footpath where everyone walks past. After I had been in and tipped I drove up to the barrier with my visitor pass in my hand, I gave it to the guard and he refused to accept it because I wasn’t wearing my hard hat in my cab. I had to drive back to the lorry park, & put on my safety gear just to hand a piece of paper in. Security guards are the same wherever you go and deserve every £2 an hour they get
Remember Jasper Carrot and the nutter on the bus.
Well I found him, I was sitting eating my meal in a restaurant in Venlo when I was rudely interrupted, “You English mate?”
Yes I replied wondering how I had given myself away, Normally I keep myself very much to myself or sit with the locals.
If I had spotted him coming I would have slid under the table, Bright Yellow Hi Viz and a bluetooth idiot device stuck to his ear.
He had only been there a few minutes when his phone rang, “yes”, “that’s right, just keep coming through Antwerp” “My mate” he said, “just come off the train but he has never done international work” Have you I muttered quietly to myself!
“I asked at the bar if there were any brits in”, “I don’t like being on my own” do you?
Actually, I replied I do.
His phone rang again, yes, no, yes blah blah blah! “My mate can’t find a sign for Antwerp”
Tell him to follow the E40 I suggested. “Here”, “you tell him” passing me his phone!
Do you mind mate, I’m trying to eat my (ZB) dinner in peace.
"You are a queer zb,” he said as he wandered off calling me names to his mate. Yes I can be!
I hope when he gets his phone bill, the bailiffs will repossess his hi viz and his blootooth.
I had another night where I was in a restaurant, and a bloke I know vaguely came in, he works for Curries and is Scottish rather than a Lithuanian. We got talking and somehow the job got round to tachos and hours. He told me that the ministry had pulled him as he came off the train. The reason was that he hadn’t had a break.
He was adamant that the 55 or so minutes it takes to cross cannot be taken as a duty break because you are not free to dispose of your time as you wish. Can Neil put this one into his next book of urban myths?
Ever wondered why I keep myself to myself?
Parking Shock
Anyone who has ever tried to get a space at Transmarck will know you need to be in there early, or very lucky if its late. Imagine my surprise on Thursday evening about 10pm. I drove in and found not one but 6 or 7 spaces, probably more if I had driven round the parking area. I soon found out why. I walked in and all the tables were cleared and only about 5 drivers sat down. I walked to the bar for my normal aperitif, a Kir, and was told it was too late. New rules state you can only have one alcoholic drink with a meal if you eat before 10pm. I was offered coffee or cola. I declined their kind offer and retired to my cab with a sandwich and a case of Heineken from my trailer box. Transmarck will soon be no more because I don’t suppose they can survive with 4 staff selling only Euro Vignettes and getting a couple of Euro’s from the showers.
Last Friday I drove from Dijon to close to Orleans on the route Nationals and was looking out for a Resto / Routiers, every one I came across was either closed for the evening or shut down for ever. The good ones will survive, the rest will die and be replaced with Old McDonalds pigswill.
